We're arriving Heathrow at 10 am and our connecting flight is at 10 pm.

What are the selections of Dayrooms in Heathrow for our 12 hr layover?

Hi mama,

Why not go visit London?

Or Windsor, or Hampton Court Palace or someplace else?

This seems like a great layover because you land mid-morning. So many flights land at some gawd awful early morning pre-dawn hour and that's a problem because nothing opens for hours.

But arriving @ 10 a.m. gives you plenty of time for a nice lunch, some sightseeing, and a quiet dinner before heading back to LHR.

I rarely recommend dashing around town on an airport connection, but with 12 hours I'd sure consider it (unless you have particularly long or grueling flights on either side of the layover).

Hopefully someone will answer your questions about options for rooms at Heathrow. I know the airport has a website you might look there.

There aren't any. The CIP lounges accessible for an entrance fee without a membership have 2-3 hour maximum stays. And there aren't the lounger-equipped quiet corners that, say, Schiphol has. They all take up space that could be used for shops. And as far as BAA's concerned, you're here to shop. If you want to sit round without spending money, use one of those fuddy-duddy government-operated airports they have in countries that don't believe in capitalism.

A number of hotels offer day rates. They seem to include the Hilton which is connected by a 50-100 yd covered walkway to T4 (only used intercontinentally by some BA flights and by some of its and KLM's intercontinental partners - but that doesn't include AA or NW, and a few miles from the other terminals).

The others are all a shlep from the airport, and obviously require you to come through Immigration.

As others hint, it's probably less trouble to have a pleasant day in London, Windsor or Oxford.

We got a day room at the Hilton at Heathrow a few years back, and it worked well. Plus, we were heading to Egypt and were able to store our colder weather clothes there for much less than the airport was going to charge for that service. It was easy to retrieve our stuff after we got back from Egypt.

Thanks for the "visit London / Windsor" suggestions...

Actually, 2 years ago, during our previous trip we did JUST THAT, we went to Windsor for 3-4 hours (weather was rainy, what a surprise...)...

Which was nice, BUT, then coming back to Heathrow in the afternoon, waiting for our 10pm flight --- WAS A TRUE NIGHTMARE!... We were so awfully tired, but we couldn't just take a nap in the terminal, with all our handbags and stuff around.

I decided then that if we ever go thru this situation again, we'd rather get a room at an airport hotel, and sleep few hours....

So, the Hilton is the only in-terminal hotel for dayrooms? And does anybody know what are their fares?

Thanks.